The Shackled Wave: North Korea’s Enigmatic Interplay with Asian Ascendancy and Hallyu

By Tessa Aguilar, HRNK Research Intern
Edited by Diletta De Luca, HRNK Research Associate

Introduction
               The phenomenon of globalization has generated critical transformations in the international landscape, reshaping the dynamics between states and redefining their global images. This is observed in the rising wave of the ‘Asian Ascendancy,’ most commonly known as increasingly popular Asian cultural exchanges, creating a surge in the hybridity of Western and Asian trends in the contemporary period. This globalized effort is defined by a plethora of Asian countries, the most notable drivers within the twenty-first century including China, Japan, South Korea, and India. More specifically, Asian Ascendancy is the mother concept of the increasingly popular Hallyu, also called the Korean Wave. This cultural boom has allowed increasing mass media exposure of South Korean entertainment, principles, and traditions, redefining current definitions and influence of Westernization. Yet, despite a growing global preference for Asian media, this does not imply that all Asian states are positively featured in the media: What are the dynamics of Asian states that have yet to fully embrace this Ascendancy? How do these states further shift their application relative to a personal socio-cultural agenda?

               In this context, North Korea, an autocratic regime notorious for its isolation and infamous socialist-dynastic political agenda, is the leading actor to apply the Asian Ascendancy to publicizing current propaganda, reinforcing its ideology in the geopolitical environment, and attempting to shift its global perception into a better light. This article presents an analysis of the Korean Wave impact on globalization as part of the broader Asian Ascendancy movement and explores how North Korea has leveraged the cultural exports of the Korean Wave to reconstruct its own global perception.

Asian Ascendancy: The Emergence of Hallyu and its Influence in North Korea

               Asian Ascendancy first emerged in the later twentieth century. Following the end of the Cold War, an increased demand for interconnectedness among societies sparked the Asian Ascendancy through the usage of media distribution amidst the age of technological innovation. Originally intended to combat the “unjust control by the Western developed nations,” Asian Ascendancy continues to reshape the narrative and global dominance of Asian culture and lifestyle.[1] Through this phenomenon, globalization has improved through increased communications fueled by multilateral dialogues and cultural expansion. In turn, globalization has been promoting increasing tolerance of international diversity while discouraging aggression and ultimately fueling interconnectedness and more robust diplomatic relations between nations.[2] Currently, China is notably spearheading this Ascendancy movement, as it expresses the highest development in cultural expansion, facilitating the exchange of multilateral dialogues, and income generation.[3] For instance, the 2008 Beijing Olympics aided in the triumph of Asian perceptions. Entrusting China to host the Games helped “undermine the perception of Western economic prowess,”[4] prompting the reevaluation of Asia’s efficiency and ability to express political disputes and historical resentments.

               One of the leading representatives of Asian Ascendancy has been Hallyu, a term coined in the late 1990s, and translated as the “[South] Korean Wave,” which emerged as a significant influence in recent entertainment and communications development. Essentially, Hallyu is an innovative hybridization of “Westernized modernity” and “Asian sentimentality” in South Korean television, music, and art.[5] As most are aware, younger audiences—from teenagers to thirty-year-old adults and even older—indulge in South Korean media, such as Korean dramas and K-Pop, due to the unique freedom of expression it signifies. The mass popularity of Hallyu is also utilized by the South Korean government, characterized as a form of soft power intended to fulfill the political agenda of “complex interdependence,” boosting the state’s global image and popularity across multiple regions.[6] However, this does not constitute a wholehearted embrace of South Korean culture, as states driven by authoritarianism and one-man dictatorships view this ascendancy as a threat to regime legitimacy and sovereignty.

               The rise of Hallyu has prompted a clash of ideology and support in North Korea. Interestingly, South Korean media was prominent in North Korea even before the Korean Wave.[7] Given the exponential increase of Hallyu and South Korean media consumption, North Korea has demonstrated a multifaceted approach to combating and embracing this dynamic. Therefore, North Korea’s utilization of Hallyu and the broader Asian Ascendancy movement offers insight into its operationalization to navigate the complexities of globalization, further reshaping its global perception. It also highlights the interplay between soft power, cultural exports, and global influence within Asian Ascendancy. North Korea’s response to Hallyu demonstrates significant strategizing around the threat posed by South Korean culture to its authoritarian regime. While the regime may seek to manage perceptions of modernity through tightly curated content, it cannot replicate or co-opt Hallyu, which is fundamentally South Korean—rooted in artistic freedom, internet culture, and Western influences such as hip-hop and global capitalism.
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                Even so, this strategic mimicry must not be mistaken for cultural openness. In reality, the Kim regime has declared Hallyu a grave ideological threat—so severe that mere possession of South Korean media can lead to imprisonment or execution. The regime’s efforts to control this “cultural contagion” reflect not an interest in integration, but fear of exposure to the freedoms symbolized by the other Korea.

The People’s Embrace and North Korea’s Strategic Response

               Hallyu has been accepted and consumed by North Korea’s people but rejected by its regime and official propaganda. The burgeoning interest in South Korean media among North Korean people derives from a shared ethnic and cultural affiliation.[8] This kinship has cultivated a favorable response among North Korean citizens, partly responsible for a notable increase in defection rates since 1998. A discernible pattern emerges: the greater the consumption of South Korean media by North Korean citizens, the higher the propensity for individuals to defect, demonstrating the impact of cultural liberty and freedom of expression within these media sources.[9] Due to Hallyu, North Koreans receive a sense of hope and empowerment despite being confined to the constraints of an authoritarian, patriarchal society driven by the Juche self-reliance ideology.[10]

               Surprisingly, at times, the DPRK has responded to Hallyu’s components. In 2018, Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un formally invited K-Pop musicians—such as Red Velvet, Seohyun from Girls’ Generation, and even Cho Yong-pil—to perform a combination of selected South Korean and traditional North Korean songs at Pyongyang’s “Spring is Coming” concert.[11] This concert would be the last performance by South Korean singers for the coming years due to escalating inter-Korean tensions. While this was truly a shocking invitation, this event should not be misinterpreted as an embrace of Hallyu by the North Korean regime. Instead, it functioned as a temporary, performative gesture aligned with inter-Korean diplomacy at the time—a diplomatic exception rather than a rule. The regime’s cultural policy remains deeply hostile to Hallyu, evidenced by the enactment of the Anti-Reactionary Thought Law in 2020, which punishes Hallyu consumption with prison or even execution.

               The “Sally Parks [송아 SongA Channel]” YouTube channel is particularly significant to North Korea’s intriguing media platforms, not as an extension of Hallyu, but rather as a strategic counter-narrative aimed at offsetting its global influence and soft power reach. Presented through the lens of an eleven-year-old girl named Song-A, this channel showcases her lifestyle in Pyongyang. Song-A provides English-spoken vlogs that offer glimpses into her educational pursuits, ardent basketball practices, and occasional immersion in the arts and English language learning. She has additionally highlighted major North Korean attractions, such as the Munsu Water Park and the 75th-anniversary celebration of the Children’s Union.[12]

                Nevertheless, discerning minds raise pertinent questions about the legitimacy of these vlogs. While these videos serve as an extended form of North Korean propaganda, leveraging the presence of a young girl to elicit sentiment among a global audience raises concerns regarding the authenticity of daily life depicted in North Korea. For instance, Song-A resides in Pyongyang, North Korea’s most developed and wealthiest city, masking the reality of the underdeveloped infrastructure among rural regions. In addition, Song-A’s contrived and rehearsed speech patterns, coupled with the perfection of the environments portrayed, posits doubts about the authenticity of this content. Rather than promoting cultural openness, the channel appears to appropriate the visual language and tone of youth-driven content associated with Hallyu, despite lacking the essential freedoms and influences—especially those from Western genres like hip-hop—that define Hallyu’s authenticity and global reach. Most significantly, these videos have minimal enforcement of North Korean principles. This is likely North Korea’s attempt to engage with the global society through falsely curated content, operating under the presumption that mimicking accessible and globally appealing formats will increase international tolerance or sympathy for the regime’s political endeavors.

Unyielding Walls and Suppressed Waves

               Despite the increasing global visibility of Hallyu and its influence across borders, North Korea’s domestic response has remained aggressively oppositional, characterized by forced ideological compliance, severe punishments for cultural subversion, and a persistent media blackout. Rather than demonstrating growth in the realm of cultural exchange, the regime has intensified efforts to insulate its population from the influence of foreign media, particularly the subversive allure of South Korean entertainment. This is evident in North Korea’s rigid censorship, demolition of cultural diplomacy infrastructure, and the establishment of laws targeting “reactionary” content.

               The straggled opportunities for North Korean tourism operations with South Korea are at an all-time low, even suffering demolition. Specifically, the early 2000s Mount Gumgang tourism project, constructed through the Sunshine Policy by the Hyundai Corporation, is being dismantled.[13] Initially meant to foster inter-Korean engagement, the project was terminated in 2008 due to the shooting death of 53-year-old South Korean tourist Park Wang-ja on a North Korean beach. Years later, North Korea began to take down South Korean facilities at Mount Gumgang.[14]

               Additionally, the North Korean regime has adopted a draconian stance toward its citizens’ consumption of South Korean media. In 2020, the regime introduced the Rejection of Reactionary Thought and Culture Act, a doctrine that rigorously enforced punishments for individuals found to be engaging with South Korean media.[15] These penalties range from arduous labor sentences and even the death penalty, depending on whether one is just a consumer or a distributor of South Korean media. For instance, individuals of any age who use “capitalist” terminology—such as referring to one’s spouse as “wife” instead of “dongji” (comrade)—face up to fifteen years of arduous labor at a labor camp.[16] Meanwhile, the death penalty is strictly enforced for those caught distributing South Korean media. Even teenagers have been executed for possessing or sharing K-Dramas, reflecting the regime’s zero-tolerance policy toward cultural infiltration.[17]

               As of 2023, North Korea continues to impose stringent ideological mandates. The intensity of this mandate is exemplified by the directive for citizens to read a minimum of 10,000 pages of propaganda for the year. This requirement urges citizens to read nearly thirty pages of propaganda each day. North Korean citizens are required to diligently journal their daily readings, as this will be presented to the party organization at the end of the year.[18] Despite acknowledging the lackluster nature of propaganda when faced with the allure of South Korean media, compliance with such measures is non-negotiable, as the consequences of nonconformity are severe and even fatal.

               Hallyu’s suppression is not merely cultural—it is a pillar of North Korea’s domestic security policy. By strictly controlling its citizens’ exposure to external influences, North Korea seeks to safeguard its grip on power and negate potential challenges to its authoritarian regime. This implies that the DPRK is adamantly attempting to impose a domestic media and information monopoly. Somehow, similar attempts target international audiences as well, but with a very limited, if any, degree of success.

Contrasting Paths: North and South Korea’s Ideological Implications on Hallyu

               The rise of Hallyu as part of the Asian Ascendancy movement delves into key values that provide a comparative analysis of North and South Korean values. Both states contain a Korean ethnic nexus yet take separate approaches to their responses to Asian Ascendancy through principles of nationalism, secularism, and the role of religion in education.

               North and South Korea exhibit strong nationalist sentiments—albeit with distinct manifestations. Firmly grounded in ethnic nationalism, South Korean nationalism is augmented by a sense of modernity and success achieved within a globalizing world. It is additionally fueled by desires for economic growth and international recognition, making it particularly receptive to the usage of cultural exports for diplomacy and global branding. Therefore, the rise of  Hallyu was embraced by South Korea as both a cultural movement and an instrument of soft power, aiding the country to assert itself across international dimensions. After all, which state would refuse the opportunity to further establish itself politically, economically, and socio-culturally through soft power mitigation?

               In contrast, North Korea fits the narrative that not all states are enthusiastic about cultural influence in global media. The regime’s nationalism is deeply intertwined with its Juche ideology and the personalist regime encompassing the state. This has resulted in a more cautious and restrictive response to Hallyu, as North Korea prefers to reinforce its own narrative established after the formation of the state following the Korean War. For example, this dynamic is observed in the enforcement of North Korea’s Chondoism in the later twentieth century. Chondoism, comprised of traditional Korean shamanism and Confucianism, was employed during Kim Il-Sung’s reign as a political scheme to bolster extreme patriotism in North Korea. It was additionally used as a bridge to reduce tensions with South Korea. However, South Korean officials declined this opportunity, as they recognized the regime’s ulterior motive to establish espionage in South Korean provinces.[19] The prominence of Chondoism in North Korea has recently diminished, due to strict pandemic policies implemented to limit the religious practice.

               Consequently, the role of secularism in North Korea has significantly diverged from the coexistence of religion with the cultural sphere, to cultist personalities. North Korea prohibits religious adherence upon any citizen and hails the Kim dynasty as the ‘saviors’ of the domestic population’s quality of life. It establishes a form of “hard secularism” through the worship of the Kim dynasty, manipulating the traditional secularist dynamic for states to protect religion from extremist distortion while enabling critical thought and information.[20] This repressive structure of secularism stands in contrast to the pluralistic religious tolerance observed in South Korea, where Christian, Buddhist, and other spiritual influences have helped shape the moral themes and creative choices found in some K-dramas and music.[21]While Hallyu does not explicitly promote religion, the cultural values embedded in its narratives—such as community, family, personal redemption, and moral responsibility—often connect with South Korea’s faith-informed social fabric. This newfound role of secularism in North Korea in the twenty-first century is vastly different compared to the promotion of South Korea’s faith-based religious principles in Hallyu.

               North Korea’s current approach to media censorship and suppression presents significant implications for the ideological framework of Hallyu and the Asian Ascendancy in contemporary globalization. It redefines the national and global perspective of state sovereignty and individualism in an ever-evolving society. Unfortunately, amidst a booming era of vibrant Asian culture and philosophy, North Korea is far too concerned with ensuring its own national legitimacy. It is not ready to embrace Hallyu and the broader Asian Ascendancy movement for the benefit of its people and society. Fundamentally, the Kim regime understands that Hallyu cannot be ideologically sanitized or replicated. It is precisely the fusion of liberal modernity, digital connectivity, and Western cultural expressions that renders it irreconcilable with North Korea’s closed, patriarchal state.

Concluding Remarks            

               As the currents of globalization once swept across the international sphere, the phenomenon of Asian Ascendancy and Hallyu stood as a powerful geopolitical force that forged new dynamics and statecraft between Western nations and the global perceptions of Asian cultures. This article discussed North Korea’s strategic employment of Hallyu to reshape its global image, as the regime weaves a carefully curated facade, blurring reality with fiction. Yet, beneath this spectacle lies the narrative of suppression and censorship. While South Korea cemented its role as the creator, distributor, and motivator of Hallyu, North Korea has remained entrenched in the institutionalization of Juche, strictly guarding its populace from the alluring charms of Hallyu, ultimately exemplifying the persistence of regressive forces in contempt of the new wave of globalized cultural exchanges. In an era increasingly marked by nationalist and protectionist currents, North Korea’s refusal to engage with cultural pluralism sinks it to even deeper isolationism. 

Tessa Aguilar is a distinguished graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles, where she earned her Bachelor’s degree in Political Science with a concentration in International Relations, complemented by minors in Global Studies and East Asian Studies. Her academic research is centered on inter-Korean political dynamics, with an emphasis on alleviating interstate animosities through the recognition and reconciliation of historical narratives. She also investigates the strategic deployment of soft power initiatives through modern entertainment and media, with a focus on the international ramifications of state-driven censorship and narrative control.

[1] Osman, Amber, Muhammad Imtiaz Subhani, and Syed Akif Hasan, “Asian Ascendancy: Media in the Age of Globalization.” SpringerPlus 2, no. 1 (2013): 2.
[2] Ibid., 3.
[3] Ibid., 5
[4] J.A. Mangan, “The New Asia: Global Transformation, Regional Ascendancy, and Metaphorical Modernity.” The Triple Asian Olympics - Asia Rising, 2018: 2234.
[5] Gunjoo Jang and Won K. Paik, “Korean Wave as Tool for Korea’s New Cultural Diplomacy,” Advances in Applied Sociology 2, no. 3 (2012): 201.
[6] Ibid., 197.
[7] Ka Young Chung, “Media as Soft Power: The Role of the South Korean Media in North Korea,” The Journal of International Communication 25, no. 1 (2018): 140.
[8] Ibid., 149
[9] Bianca Milanowitsch, “Mapping the Presence of the Korean Wave in North Korea,” International Quarterly for Asian Studies 48, no. 3–4 (2017): 280.
[10] Ibid., 279.
[11] The Guardian, “South Korean K-Pop Stars Perform for Kim Jong-Un in Pyongyang,” Guardian News and Media, April 1, 2018.
[12] YouTube, “Song A’s Life ‘Munsu Water Park Part 2’ |송아|,” YouTube, July 30, 2022.
[13] Samuel Seongseop Kim and Bruce Prideaux, “An Investigation of the Relationship between South Korean Domestic Public Opinion, Tourism Development in North Korea and a Role for Tourism in Promoting Peace on the Korean Peninsula,” Tourism Management 27, no. 1 (2006): 125.
[14] Soo-yeon Kim, “Seoul Voices Regret over NK’s Removal of S. Korean-Built Facilities at Mount Geumgang Resort,” Yonhap News Agency, October 18, 2022.
[15] Seulkee Jang, “Daily NK Acquires Full Text of the Anti-Reactionary Thought Law,” Daily NK, March 21, 2023.
[16] Jieun Kim, “Talking like ‘Capitalist’ South Koreans Can Lead to Prison or Death in North Korea,” Radio Free Asia, March 22, 2023.
[17] Hyemin Son, “North Korean Parents Will Be Punished If Their Children Watch Foreign Media Even Once,” Radio Free Asia, February 23, 2023.
[18] Hyemin Son, “North Korea Orders Citizens to Read 10,000 Pages of Propaganda This Year,” Radio Free Asia, April 28, 2023.
[19] Nicolas Levi, “How North Korea Embraced an Obscure Religion as a Tool for Korean Unification,” NK News - North Korea News, June 22, 2023.
[20] Lynn Davies, “One Size Does Not Fit All: Complexity, Religion, Secularism and Education,” Asia Pacific Journal of Education 34, no. 2 (2014): 191.
[21] Ali, Ghada Mohamed,“2 Composers of K-Drama’s OST Explain Their Approaches.” Korea.net, June 30, 2023.

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